REGULATORY ASSETS AND LIABILTIES

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

REGULATORY ASSETS AND LIABILITIES

Regulatory assets and liabilities were comprised of the following as of December 31:


	Recovery Period	2020		2019
Regulatory Assets
Pension and retiree group health	Indefinitely	$	59,588	$	208,321
Property-related temporary differences (tax benefits flowed through to customers)	Indefinitely	120,365		104,931
Other accrued benefits	Indefinitely	21,692		20,030
Net WRAM and MCBA long-term accounts receivable	1-2 years	33,136		25,465
Asset retirement obligations, net	Indefinitely	21,110		19,567
IRMA long-term accounts receivable	1-2 years	14,705		4,642
Tank coating	10 years	14,018		13,535
Recoverable property losses	9 years	4,531		5,000
PCBA	1 year	19,647		21,465
Other components of net periodic benefit cost	Indefinitely	6,736		5,145
General district balancing account receivable	1 year	1,830		425
Low-income rate assistance (LIRA) and Rate support fund (RSF) accounts receivable	1 year	5,310		787
Other regulatory assets	Various	2,708		4,009
Total Regulatory Assets		$	325,376	$	433,322
Regulatory Liabilities
Future tax benefits due to customers		$	151,011	$	194,501
Retiree group health		18,472		—
HCBA		5,320		4,271
Conservation program		3,837		2,742
Net WRAM and MCBA long-term payable		479		211
1,2,3 trichloropropane settlement proceeds		—		8,426
Other regulatory liabilities		1,599		1,262
Total Regulatory Liabilities		$	180,718	$	211,413

`The Company's pension and retiree group health regulatory asset represents the unfunded obligation of the Company’s pension and postretirement benefit plans which the Company expects to recover from customers in the future for these plans. The retiree group health regulatory liability represents the overfunded obligation of the Company’s postretirement benefit plans which the Company expects to refund to customers in the future. These plans are discussed in further detail in Note 12.

The PCBA regulatory asset and the HCBA regulatory liability represent incurred pension and healthcare costs that exceeded/was below the cost recovery in rates and is recoverable/refundable from/to customers. The other components of net periodic benefit cost regulatory asset are authorized by the Commissions and are probable for rate recovery through the capital program.

The property-related temporary differences are primarily due to: (i) the difference between book and federal income tax depreciation on utility plant that was placed in service before the regulatory Commissions adopted normalization for rate making purposes; and (ii) certain (state) deferred taxes for which flow through accounting continues to be applied to originating deferred taxes. The regulatory asset will be recovered in rates in future periods as the tax effects of the temporary differences previously flowed-through to customers reverse.

Other accrued benefits are accrued benefits for vacation, self-insured workers' compensation, and directors' retirement benefits. The net WRAM and MCBA long-term accounts receivable is the under-collected portion of recorded revenues that are not expected to be collected from customers within 12 months. The IRMA long-term accounts receivables is the additional amount the Company would have billed customers in 2020 had the 2018 GRC been approved on time.

The asset retirement obligation regulatory asset represents the difference between costs associated with asset retirement obligations and amounts collected in rates. Tank coating represents the maintenance costs for tank coating projects that are recoverable from customers.

The LIRA and RSF are two programs offered by Cal Water that assist qualifying customers with their monthly water bill. The programs are funded by the customers who do not qualify for the assistance. The LIRA and RSF regulatory assets represent the amounts due from customers to fund the LIRA and RSF credits that were provided to assist qualifying customers.

The future tax benefits due to customers primarily resulted from federal tax law changes enacted by the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) on December 22, 2017. The TCJA reduced the federal corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent beginning on January 1, 2018, and GAAP requires the Company to re-measure all existing deferred income tax assets and liabilities to reflect the reduction in the federal tax rate on the enactment date.

The conservation program regulatory liability is for incurred conservation costs that were below the cost recovery in rates and is refundable to customers.

1,2,3 trichloropropane (TCP) settlement proceeds are discussed in Note 15.

Short-term regulatory assets and liabilities are excluded from the above table. The short-term regulatory assets for 2020 and 2019 were $96.2 million and $38.2 million, respectively. The short-term regulatory assets, as of December 31, 2020, primarily consist of net WRAM and MCBA, IRMA, and PCBA receivables. As of December 31, 2019, the short-term regulatory assets consisted of net WRAM and MCBA receivables.

The short-term portion of regulatory liabilities for 2020 and 2019 were $34.6 million and $4.5 million, respectively. The short-term regulatory liabilities as of December 31, 2020, primarily consist of TCJA and HCBA refunds and TCP settlement proceeds. As of December 31, 2019, the short-term regulatory liabilities primarily consist of TCP settlement proceeds, tax accounting memorandum account refunds, and cost of capital memorandum account refunds